The Ministry of Defence announced Wednesday that the Egyptian Air Forces destroyed three vehicles suspected of belonging to “terrorist groups” in the areas of Al-Arish and Sheikh Zuweid.
The cars were full of ammunition and weapons, the ministry statement said. It added that security forces in North Sinai also managed to destroy a tunnel in the city of Rafah, where they found military clothes, advanced communication devices, and telescopes for military rifles.
The Egyptian governorate has been intensifying its efforts to confront rising militant activity in Sinai.
On Wednesday, local news outlets reported that the South Sinai governorate distributed 39 residential flats to families affected by the latest buffer zone implemented by the army to fight terrorism.
The Egyptian army began establishing a ‘secure zone’ along the Rafah border, after a suicide bomber and armed raid left at least 30 security personnel dead on 24 October, 2014.
Immediately after that attack, Egypt closed the Rafah-Gaza border. Days later, the Egyptian armed forces announced it would establish a buffer zone to end all smuggling activity in underground tunnels connecting Rafah to the Gaza Strip.
The first phase of the buffer zone, with a width of 500 metres and a length of 13.5 km along the border with Gaza, began in October 2014, with the evacuation of 1,156 families. The second phase is set to cover another 500 metres.
A survey committee from Rafah city authorities identified 1,220 houses, inhabited by 2,044 families, which will be evacuated in the second phase.
Egypt has pointed fingers at militant groups in Gaza, accusing them of aiding extremists in Sinai, however the government has been diplomatically mobilising to condemn the latest violence in Palestine.
Secretary General of the Arab League, Nabil Al-Arabi, met with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi Tuesday evening to discuss the recent events in the region, including the latest Arab League meeting.
During the meeting, Al-Sisi asserted presenting all possible support for the Palestinian people “as the situation in Jerusalem and Western Bank is escalating”.
Al-Sisi added that “absolute peace” by returning to the 1967 boarders and establishing the Palestinian state is the only solution to the current problem.
Egypt has condemned earlier this week the “excessive use of power” by Israeli security forces, as deadly clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police and settlers continues in the volatile Gaza Strip
Clashes have been ongoing between Palestinians and Israelis, leading to Israel’s controversial ban of Palestinians from entering Jerusalem. Casualties among Palestinian civilians and Israeli settlers have been increasing.
